


Day Twenty-Eight: Tessa & Jem

by claryherondale



Category: The Infernal Devices Series - Cassandra Clare, The Mortal Instruments Series - Cassandra Clare, The Shadowhunter Chronicles - All Media Types, The Shadowhunter Chronicles - Cassandra Clare
Genre: F/M, First Love, Fluff, Immortality, Love, Love Triangles, No Smut, One Shot, Post-Book 3: Clockwork Princess, Post-Book 6: City of Heavenly Fire, Post-Book Series: The Infernal Devices, Post-Book Series: The Mortal Instruments, True Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-29
Updated: 2016-12-29
Packaged: 2018-09-13 02:10:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,197
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9101707
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/claryherondale/pseuds/claryherondale
Summary: Day 28 of My 31 Favorite ShipsAfter Jocelyn and Luke's wedding, Tessa and Jem go back to their hotel and talk briefly about what it means to be with each other again after all of this time.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Jessa makes me so happy yet so sad. Can you believe I've written 28 one shots so far this month? I didn't think that I'd actually be able to do it. I have an idea for a fanfiction that will be multiple (probably a lot of) chapters that I will start at the beginning of 2017, so stay tuned x
> 
> This is just a bit of fluff. There is no smut; don't be confused by the fact that it takes place in a hotel. I wanted a sweet, pure Jessa fanfic post-epilogue of CP2, especially since Cassandra Clare provided us with that (quite frankly, amazing) smutty After the Bridge short story about Tessa & Jem's first time. 
> 
> I'm rambling, sorry.

Tessa swept her long, dark hair up into a messy bun, knotted at the top of her head. While she stood in front of the mirror at the hotel, she noticed Jem looking at her. She knew it would take a while for him to completely adjust to modern life. Although he had seen her change—not with age but with clothing, hairstyles, and other similar things—over the years and had witnessed the cultural evolution during his rare outings from the Silent City and when Shadowhunters came in to see him for various reasons, Jem was just now surfacing from a dark world where nothing ever really changed. 

And now he had to adjust to a new life, one where everyone he knew, aside from Tessa, was dead. Well, Tessa and Church. Church was curled up in Jem’s arms, as he stood, lean and strong, on the threshold of the open bathroom door.

“What did you think of Luke and Jocelyn’s wedding?” Tessa asked him.

Jem was stroking the Blue Persian’s fur warmly. “It was beautiful. Jocelyn Fairchild is a strong woman, like Charlotte was. It’s no wonder that they came from the same bloodline. Clary Fairchild, too. What a radiant young woman. She has been through quite a lot.” He smiled slightly, reminiscing. “What did you think of Jace Herondale?”

“He has that burning light that Will always had, even in his last days,” said Tessa. “If either you or I had been around during the process of trying to identify who his lineage belonged to, we could have saved him and Clary quite a lot of grief.”

Jem shook his head reflectively. “Yes, we could have. We would have known. He doesn’t look like Will did—his parabatai, Alec Lightwood, looks more like he did when he was younger. But Jace has the same manner that Will carried about him. He has the same sarcastic wit and the same starry presence. Not to mention the tragedy that was brewing inside him until he was able to be with Clary.”

“Doesn’t it just take you back?” Tessa teased.

Jem smiled at her. He let go of Church, and the cat leapt away from him and crawled up onto the bed, ensuring that he could keep an eye on Jem so that he wouldn’t be able to leave. Tessa thought that maybe Church was just as amazed and bewildered by the idea that he was back in their lives. Just as disbelieving that they could actually have a life with him again, be with him again.

Jem stepped closer to her, and she wrapped her arms around his neck. He leaned in and brushed a light kiss against her throat, and his slim fingers reached up and ran along the chain of the engagement necklace he had given her so long ago.

It bound them together through time. As though a day hadn’t passed and yet a lifetime had gone between them but didn’t have the strength to separate them or deteriorate their connection.

Jem let his hand slip to the silky, green fabric of the dress Tessa had not yet removed.

“Green will mend our broken hearts,” he recited.

She grinned and said, “I was wondering if you’d put that together.”

“It took me a little longer than I’d like to admit—I was too transfixed by everything else about you.”

Tessa hesitated for a moment. “Are you sure you still love me, Jem? It’s been over a century, and we’ve both changed. I don’t want you to be with me just because I’m the only one left alive. I don’t want you to be with me because I’m the only woman you’ve loved. There are other people out there that you might like better.”

She was far more confident and forward now that she had endured more than a normal lifetime worth of years, but she needed to be sure. She needed to be sure before she could completely give herself to the fantasy that she never allowed herself, not since he became a Silent Brother: a reality with Jem.

“Tessa, do you even hear yourself? I don’t want to be with you by default or out of nostalgia. I want to be with you because you are one of the only two soulmates that I will ever have. I love you, Tessa Gray. If you’ll have me, I want to be with you until the end of my days.”

The thought pulled at Tessa’s heartstrings in more ways than one—the love she felt was overpowering, but she knew that she would face loss again. She knew it was a loss that would be worth the time she would get with him. She knew that it was a loss she would have to endure. Because the idea of not getting any more time with him at all—which was what she thought was fated to happen, that he would live forever in this world with her but separated by an impenetrable and irreversible divide, something that was daily torture—was more of a loss than the one that would come with his death. She would have memories of him when it came time for him to pass. She would have memories that she would hold close to her heart for the rest of her immortal life, the way she did with Will. 

“I love you as well, James Carstairs.”

He smiled. “Do you know how long it has been since I’ve heard that name spoken? For over a century, that name was gone from me. But, by the Angel, I have always loved the way you say it, more than anyone.”

Tessa smiled and leaned in to kiss Jem. Their lips met and parted against each other, and although neither of them had kissed anyone in a very, very long time, they were relearning the practice with one another—and most of it came naturally when they were together. 

They embraced with fervor and passion, twining their arms against their bodies. Jem was stronger than ever, a Shadowhunter again but more powerful now that the yin fen no longer held him hostage. With their lips and tongues still interlocked ardently, Jem grasped Tessa’s waist and lifted her up so that she was on the tile counter in the bathroom, her legs wrapped around Jem’s back. Tessa pulled his shirt up off over his head, ecstasy in their every touch, so long missed and so long desired.

She weaved her fingers into his soft, silky hair, black now with just a strip of silver marking his old life, his old contradictory tragedy: a life that he could live only by killing himself with the drug that he needed to survive yet was forcing him to die.

Jem parted his lips from Tessa’s for just a moment, whispering, “You have given me a second chance. I have gotten another life—one that I never thought I could possibly have. And you have made it worth living. For that, I will never be able to repay you.”

Tessa smiled at him, her heart finally happy and her whole body filled with love, and teasingly murmured, “Try.”

**Author's Note:**

> Hint for tomorrow's ship:  
> same two people & one more


End file.
